Thursday, August 4, 2011

I’m not going to talk about live Quarter Horses anymore (is that a sigh of relief I hear?) but I am going to start with this year’s NAN Champ OF Quarter Horse.

I’ve judged this specific horse at previous shows, I’ve lost to him at other shows, and I’d steal him off the table if I had a chance (I’m kidding--sort of.)

Even though Breyer markets this model as a Thoroughbred, his owner shows her copy as a racing-bred quarter horse. This is a great choice because the mold is not as bulky as a stock horse mold like Smart Chic Olena, but not as lean and leggy as a Lonesome Glory or classic-scaleMan o’ War, which many model horse judges prefer in a Thoroughbred class.

He’s not shown as a halter-type QH (as I discussed yesterday), and he’s not in a halter pose. A horse isn't supposed to gallop in a real halter class. But in the model world, there is no rule against it and I have never seen a judge knock a horse for an “inappropriate” pose.

Even "bad horse" poses are allowed:

And "natural" poses:

In this case, artistry wins out over adherence to our real world counterpart. Speaking as an artist: thank god. Sculpting and customizing would be dreadfully boring if our only options for LSQ (live show quality) models were performance and halter appropriate poses. As is, I find myself constantly biting against the bridle of live showing’s restrictions and limitations.** If I could only sculpt/sell models in polite/boring poses, I’d go batty.

**My constant attempts to bend or circumnavigate live showing rules are probably the reason I’m so familiar with them.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

When I was showing in Youth divisions I regularly had horses disqualified by one particular posse of judges for being in non-halter-friendly poses. Then again, this judge also tried to kick all the Youth showers out of a show I was at because we didn't have a halter for each model we were showing in halter. Thank god I don't think that crew are judging around here anymore.

I'm really loving these posts- I'm a weirdo who really enjoys horsey research, and I love making halter documentation. However, I come from a very, erm, "conservative" show circuit. A racing-bred Quarter Horse with documentation for his type would never beat an obvious halter-type like Smart Chic (and Smart Chic would never beat Lady Phase because that would upset the balance of the universe or something).

I'm that kind of geek too. I spend a lot of time sitting around thinking about this kinda stuff. Like "what makes an ideal Morgan?" And "when did people start breeding flat-backed arabs and why?" And "why is there no registry for Morgan/QHs aka the best breed cross ever?"